Solitary or in small groups under pines in the San Francisco Bay Area and in mixed hardwood-conifer woods along the north coast, possibly associated with Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii); also likely at mid elevations of the Sierra Nevada; fruiting from fall to mid-winter; uncommon in most years.

Edibility

Deadly poisonous!!! Symptoms include nausea and vomiting beginning 2-12 hours after ingestion and progresses to kidney failure in 2-6 days.

Comments

Amanita smithiana is a beautiful white, uncommon Amanita recognized by a cap with soft, white powdery-floccose to occasionally small pyramidal shaped warts that readily slough off and maybe absent in age. The cottony, friable universal veil also often leaves fragments on the young cap margin and along the stipe, but seldom forms an annulus. A rudimentary volva in the form of bands of universal veil tissue develops at the base of the stipe which typically has a root-like extension.

While not as lethal as the death cap, Amanita phalloides, A. smithiana is dangerously poisonous, known to cause kidney failure. Poisonings have been reported in Oregon and Washington where it has inadvertently been collected by hunters of matsutake (Tricholoma magnivelare). Though the two species are superficially similar, they are relatively easy to distinguish using a combination of characters. These include stature, relatively tall in Amanita smithiana versus stocky in Tricholoma magnivelare; the presence of well-developed cottony veil cap fragments (at least in youth) in Amanita smithiana, absent in Tricholoma magnivelare; the presence of a membranous and persistent annulus in Tricholoma magnivelare, normally absent in Amanita smithiana; the presence of bands of scale-like rings at the base of the stipe along with a root-like extension in Amanita smithiana (if carefully collected), absent in Tricholoma magnivelare; finally, the presence of a spicy odor in Tricholoma magnivelare compared to a mild in young specimens of Amanita smithiana, becoming unpleasant in age.

Amanita smithiana should be compared with several other whitish California Amanitas. These include the white form of the death cap, Amanita phalloides (see that description for details); Amanita magniverrucata, recognized by large, white to tan, firmly anchored pyramidal cap warts; Amanita cokeri, smilar to A. magniverrucata but with small persistent tan-colored warts, and Amanita silvicola, similar to Amanita smithiana with floccose cap patches, but differing in possessing a marginate, bulbous base and mild odor. Finally it should be noted that Amanita ocreata, a deadly oak-dwelling species, and spring counterpart to the fall fruiting Amanita phalloides, has a cream colored, usually glabrous cap that resembles the cap of Amanita smithiana if its universal veil has sloughed off.